Cheaper Toyota servicing limited to C-HR

Toyota Australia says it is not ready to roll out its improved servicing scheme — which premieres on the new C-HR crossover this week — to other vehicles.

The C-HR is the first vehicle to be offered in Australia with extended Toyota Service Advantage, meaning you get five years of advertised servicing prices at 12 month/15,000km intervals (whichever comes first) at $195 per visit.

This means five years of servicing, if you’re driving average kilometres, will cost you $975. More importantly, you’ll only need to visit your dealer once per year.

By comparison, other Toyotas such as the Corolla or Yaris have intervals of six-months/10,000km at $140 a pop, and a Service Advantage scheme covering three years. Thus the annual cost for three years (six services) is $840.

More visits and more money. Still cheap, but less so.

Part of the reason for this is the fact the C-HR premieres the company’s new platform in non-hybrid guise, and uses a new 1.2-litre turbo engine. The C-HR’s main rival, the Mazda CX-3, has 12-month/10,000km intervals, with dealer visits alternating between $284 and $312.

Disappointingly, however, other Toyota models will not yet follow the C-HR’s lead and adopt the more affordable servicing model. However, it seems inevitable it’ll happen.

Toyota Australia executive director Tony Cramb said this week that the company was studying the viability of rolling out its improved Service Advantage scheme to other models.

“There’s no plan at this point in time but obviously it’s our desire to study and make sure this is what the guests want,” he said.

“The new vehicle and engine gives us the opportunity, I think on passenger vehicles we are clearly thinking about offering that, but for now it’s just C-HR.”

It’s hard to think of a reason why the ‘guests’ (Toyota’s word for buyers) wouldn’t want cheaper and less frequent servicing…

Reading between the lines, Toyota Australia needs to make sure it keeps its massive dealer network on side, given most selling-sites make more profit through aftersales than any other area.